BERKELEY – Quarterbacks Keller Chryst of Stanford and Davis Webb of Cal were both able to put up respectable numbers despite some early rainy weather Saturday at the 119th annual Big Game.

Chryst completed 13 of 23 passes for 198 yards and two touchdowns – and also ran for another score – in improving to 4-0 as Stanford’s starter. It helped that he didn’t have to throw the ball a ton – not with tailback Christian McCaffrey rushing for a school-record 284 yards and three TDs on 31 carries in the 24th-ranked Cardinal’s 45-31 victory.

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“We were able to run the ball really well,” Chryst said. “Our guys played phenomenally up front, and when you get a good running game going, it opens up the passing game pretty well.”

Webb, meanwhile, completed 34 passes for 393 yards and two touchdowns. However, the senior also threw 23 incompletions – many of which came on dropped passes.

Still, Webb refused to blame the weather for his trouble connecting with receivers.

“I can throw in any condition,” he said. “I just need to make more throws for us to win.”

Unlike the Cardinal (8-3, 6-3 Pac-12), the Golden Bears (4-7, 2-6) were unable to get their running game going, managing just 90 yards on the ground. Stanford safety Dallas Lloyd said the weather had something to do with that.

“It’s really hard to throw the ball downfield when it’s windy and it’s wet,” Lloyd said. “They wanted to attack us, and we were able to use one-on-one matchups to stop the run.”

In the stands, the weather’s impact manifested itself in the form of huge blocks of empty seats. Attendance at the game was 52,266 – well below Memorial Stadium’s seating capacity of 67,537.

n On what was already a record-setting day for McCaffrey, the junior reached or tied several other milestones. Not only did McCaffrey move past Toby Gerhart into third place on the Cardinal’s career rushing list, he also became the second player in school history to reach 6,500 career all-purpose yards.

McCaffrey surpassed Gerhart’s total on his eighth carry, a 31-yard run in the second quarter. He now leads the Pac-12 with 1,399 yards rushing.

McCaffrey has a ways to go to catch the two rushers ahead of him on Stanford’s career list. Stepfan Taylor and Darrin Nelson each rushed for more than 4,000 yards for the Cardinal.

McCaffrey also had four receptions for 22 yards in Saturday’s game to finish with a season-high 306 all-purpose yards. He surpassed 2,000 all-purpose yards for the second straight season and is closer to breaking Nelson’s career record of 7,120.

As if all of that weren’t enough, McCaffrey tied the mark for third-longest touchdown in school history, a 90-yarder, in the third quarter. He finished with three TDs for the scored straight game and the third time in his past four, counting his receiving TD against Arizona.

n Cal wide receiver Chad Hansen wasted no time getting his 1,000th receiving yard of the season – and the catch on which the sophomore reached the milestone had some additional stardust to boot.
Needing just 21 yards to reach 1,000 entering Saturday’s game, Hansen hauled a pass from Webb 70 yards on the Golden Bears’ first offensive play to score the game’s opening touchdown.
Hansen finished the game with 114 yards and two TDs on seven catches and now leads the Pac-12 with 1,093 yards.

n This is the fourth consecutive season in which all of Stanford’s seniors have finished their careers without losing the Big Game. The Cardinal has scored at least 30 points in the past four Big Games and six of the past seven.

“I’m very excited for our seniors,” Stanford coach David Shaw said. “They get to keep the Axe – every senior class we’ve had recently has never lost the Axe. I’m proud of ’em.”

Lloyd is among those seniors.

“That’s a dream come true,” the safety said. “When I was growing up, I couldn’t wait for rivalry weekend. College football rivalry weekend is what it’s all about.”

n Stanford wide receiver J.J. Arcega-Whiteside quietly finished with 107 yards on four catches. That number bested the sophomore’s previous career high by one yard, which he got last week at Oregon.

n Cal honored longtime radio broadcaster Joe Starkey before Saturday’s game by naming its home radio booth after him.

Starkey has been the Golden Bears’ play-by-play man for 42 seasons. Starting in 1975, Starkey has called 483 Cal games, including Saturday’s contest, and is on track to reach 500 in 2018.

His most memorable call, at least for many Cal and Stanford fans, was “The Play.” Moments after the Cardinal took a 20-19 lead with four seconds remaining in the 1982, the Golden Bears lateraled the ensuing kickoff five times in an effort to elude oncoming tacklers as well as the Stanford marching band, which had prematurely marched onto the field.

After Cal’s Kevin Moen took the final lateral, knocked over Stanford trombone player Gary Tyrrell and crossed the goal line for the winning TD, Starkey called The Play “the most amazing, sensational, dramatic, heartrending, thrilling finish in the history of college football!”

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